If you’ve ever been to the Magic Kingdom at Disney World in Orlando, chances are you’ve the seen the amazing light show projected against the facade of Cinderella’s castle that brings the day’s activities to a close.
It’s something to see.
That something will be on display in Little Rock Saturday night. The projection mapping used to illuminate and transform the castle will be a part of the Little Rock Film Festival, thanks to Power Technology Inc. of Alexander, an Innovate Arkansas firm.
The ninth-annual festival is underway in Little Rock, and laser manufacturer PTI will help the Old State House “morph into a canvas for visual expression” at 8 p.m. Saturday as part of its closing gala.
(Here’s more on the festival from Little Rock Soirée.)
PTI’s Walter Burgess explains projection mapping:
Formally, projection mapping is the display of an image on an arbitrary surface. However, it is most often used to project images, animation and seemingly interactive graphics onto an architectural surface.
PTI will be projecting animations developed by Jason Hayne of Balanced Lighting Systems. PTI also is developing a seperate laser projection system called Illumina that it recently marketed at industry trade shows such as CinemaCon in Las Vegas.
“Projection mapping and laser illuminated projection mapping are amazing technologies,” Burgess said. “I’ve seen projectors used to show ledges of buildings fall off or dragons chase anime characters. It is complex in that it uses the architecture of the building as a part of the story and the projection has to be very precise to pull it off well. But, when it is pulled off right, it is guaranteed to make you smile.”
Imagine an animated snake slithering up one of the columns of the Old State House, he suggested. Pretty cool. Now, if the rain can just hold off this weekend…
[Editor’s note: The rain did not hold off over the weekend, and the closing gala was cancelled. But PTI still plans to display its projection mapping at some point in the near future. Stay tuned. Meanwhile, coverage of the festival from Soiree here.]
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